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The Chevrolet Volt may be more than a million units behind the Toyota Prius in overall global sales, but at least General Motors now can claim it's got something significant over the iconic hybrid brand: better mileage on an apples-to-apples basis.

GM said this week that changes to the battery of the Volt will extend the range of the 2013 model. And although GM didn't tout the fact, the changes will carry the capabilities of the 2013 Volt beyond those of Toyota's new plug-in Prius in miles-per-gallon equivalent.

The all-electric range of the new Volt will be 38 miles on a single charge, GM said, an increase of three miles. And its mpg-equivalent will rise to 98 miles from 94 when it goes on sale in August, the company said.

Prius plug-in? It gets 95 mpg-equivalent and can travel 15 miles on electricity alone, Toyota has said.

"I always like it when our numbers are bigger -- when bigger is better," Andrew Farah, Volt chief engineer, said in a conference call with reporters.

Bill Wallace, GM director of global battery systems engineering, said in a statement that "the best way to explain what we've done at the cell level is to compare it to a cake-batter recipe. Sometimes if you use more sugar and less vanilla you get a better-tasting cake. We've done some work at the cell level to modify the 'ingredients' to make a better end result. This attention to detail will allow our customers to experience more pure EV range, which is the true benefit of owning a Volt."

GM also boosted the total storage capacity of the Volt battery to 16.5 kWh of energy from 16 kWh, and engineers have expanded the state-of-charge window to use 10.8 kWh of the total battery energy -- up from 10.3 kWh used in the 2012 model. The battery system maintains a buffer to ensure battery life, but that buffer has been reduced.

Of course, there's no way Volt will ever touch the overall Prius franchise in another number where it'd be really nice to be "bigger": total sales. Prius overall has sold more than 1.2 million units in its decade of existence and became the world's third-best selling car line in the first quarter, thanks in large part to surging U.S. demand.